Julia Cruthirds was working for the Lord as an usher, president of the adult choir, director of the youth choir, missionary president and in other roles in her home church when she realized she was truly called to do more.
She had surrendered to the ministry and preached her first sermon in February of 2000, but was still led to go farther.
“I asked the Lord to give me something to do out in the vineyard, beyond the four walls of the church,” Cruthirds said.
She began a role as district missionary, visiting dozens of churches doing whatever they needed to “win souls to Christ.”
“It was during this time I began feeling the calling to be a pastor,” Cruthirds said.
On her daily visit to the Bruce Post Office to pick up her mail, she couldn’t help but notice the deteriorating church building next door.
“I thought ‘who in the world would let a church go down?,’” Cruthirds said. “I kept coming by on my way to my church and looking at it. There was something that was pulling me there. One day I was coming by and there was a man and woman on the roof and I stopped to ask them about the church.”
Cruthirds learned it was being renovated to be turned into a residence, but was informed she could possibly buy it. After a lot of prayer, she obtained the property and began trying to clean it up herself.
“One day I was out there cleaning with my daughters and a man stopped by and asked is this the new church that’s opening up,” Cruthirds said. “I said yes, but we’re nowhere close to opening. He said he was looking for a church and I just looked to heaven.”
More visitors would come while cleaning and renovating was still ongoing asking about joining the still under construction church.
“I knew the Lord was doing this,” Cruthirds said. “We didn’t have water, electricity or nothing, but if the Lord wanted us to have a service, we were going to have a service. So we had our first before we had electricity turned on. We didn’t have any pews or pulpit furniture. We found 14 folding chairs, four of which were broken, and set them up and started Bible class on Tuesday nights, regular service on Sunday morning, and the rest of the time we were working on the church.”
First Timothy Independent, named for the book of the Bible that Cruthirds saw when she first opened her Bible after acquiring the church property, opened last August with 42 chairs. Soon after a church in Arkansas called and donated pews. More came from a church in Chickasaw County.
“We just put our trust in the Lord to make a way,” Cruthirds said. “Everything we have needed God has provided.”
“My focus now is to win souls to Christ,” she said.
Cruthirds said her experience as a female pastor hasn’t been without apprehension, but she continues to lean on her faith.
“Women are not as accepted as men are when they are called into the ministry,” she said. “That was one of the fears I had, but reading scripture took all my fears away.”
“I went through a period of time where I was rejected. People didn’t seem to want to hear the word from a woman, but I didn’t let that stop me. I found scripture that said ‘don’t let nothing separate you from the word of God.’ I used that.”
The church has continued to grow with a number of successful revivals in recent months, Cruthirds said.
“His presence is here in every service,” she said.
They plan to host their first anniversary Aug. 27 at 3 p.m.
“We’ve grown spiritually and in number since first opening,” Cruthirds said. “We still have a lot of work to do, but we’re thankful for how far we’ve come.”
“When we opened we had holes in the floor, the ceiling was falling in, needed painting, no pews, but look at us now. We don’t have the best, but we’re blessed by the best.”